Randle P McMurphy is a charming rogue who contrives to serve a short sentence in an airy mental institution rather in a prison. This, he learns, was a mistake. He clashes with the head nurse, a fierce artinet. Quickly, he takes over the yard and accomplishes what the medical profession has been unable to do for twelve years; he makes a presumed deaf and dumb Indian talk. He leads others out of introversion, stages a revolt so that they can see the world series on television, and arranges a rollicking midnight party with liquor and chippies. For one offense, the head nurse has him submit to shock treatment. The party is too horrid for her and she forces him to submit to a final correction a frontal lobotomy.

Character Information

Please note, the ages listed are for the characters, not an age requirement for actors.

Randle Patrick McMurphy (M, 30-40): A hard man of thirty-five, fun-loving and full of self-confidence. His broad devilish grin, loud talk and swagger all remind one of a car salesman or a pitchman you see on a sideshow stage.

Dale Harding (M, 35-50): The most educated of the patients and their unofficial leader before McMurphy's arrival; a handsome, nervous effete man.

Billy Bibbit (M, 20-35): In age, thirty-one, but psychologically an adolescent still under his mother s control. Billy has an extreme speech impediment (stutter).

Cheswick (M, 30-50): A Patient, alternately truculent and cringing. Cheswick is always demanding change, but never has the courage to see anything through.

Martini (M, any): An eager and bright-eyed Italian who suffers from hallucinations.

Scanlon (M, any): A patient, obsessed with constructing bombs to blow up the world. Aside from McMurphy and Bromden, he is the only non-vegetative patient there by force.

Chief Bromden (M, any): A large, bull-muscled Indian with schizophrenia. While he is a powerful man of six and a half feet, he thinks of himself as a tiny dwarf. Through most of the action he pretends to be deaf and dumb.

Ruckley (M, 30-50): A once powerful man, now blank-faced and empty-eyed, the result of a botched lobotomy. He spends most of the time crucified against a wall, occasionally screaming profanities.

Nurse Ratched (F, 35-50): The ward superintendent and ultimate authority. A handsome, well endowed woman in her late forties/ early fifties with an odd perfection about her -- a face smooth, calculated, and precision-made, like an expensive baby doll.

Dr. Spivey (M, any): The resident psychiatrist, a harassed little fellow of no great force.

Nurse Flinn (F, 20-30): A young eager nurse eager, a bit apprehensive of the patients.

Aide Williams ( M ,any): One of the two principal orderlies in the ward.

Aide Warren ( M, any): One of the two principal orderlies in the ward.

Aide Turkle (M, 50-70): An elderly kind man who works the late shift in the ward. He enjoys his liquor and marijuana.